I have heard a lot of preaching and teaching of the word in my life. I have dined on some of the best. But dining is not enough; dining is to be followed by doing. After James tells us about the implanted word being able to save our souls he immediately reminds us to be doers of the word. He calls us to put into practice the word. Enjoying the word and failing to put it into practice is a kind of self-deception; we mistake our heart’s confirmation of the word as doing. It is not! What I hear I must heed. What I know must become such a part of me that it changes all my thoughts, words and deeds. The Spirit of the Word makes that possible.
“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.” (James 1:22–25 ESV).
